October 7
Somewhat coincidentally to the meeting I described yesterday, the Channing Murray Foundation surfaced also on WUNA-Main, a listserv (rather a google group) for the dwellers of West Urbana, the better-off part of the town between the campus and downtown Urbana.
It was one of the recipients of the funds sent by the federal government to reboot cities after Covid, which Urbana City Council funneled to different destination. (CMF hides under the Red Herring line in the list.)
I questioned on the listserv the allocation. The CMF is a poorly run charity: it spends on the executive compensation around 25% of its revenue (according to their 990 form from 2022, the latest I had access to), compared to under 1% spent by the Eastern Illinois Foodbank (a far bigger and more effective charity). So, why the CMF was selected for funding? (My conjecture is that it’s exactly because its Board became became captured by the anti-Israel extremists, who turned it into a heavily politicized space1Contrary to the claim of the Foundation being “Radically Inclusive”, appealing to the activist sensibilities of some of the Urbana Council members.)
The ensuing message board discussion was predictably vacuous, if not for one contribution. The poster, Addie Gray, dumped on the listserv the whole unedited diatribe from the Instagram page of the UIUC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine2Replete with terms like Zionist entity, IOF etc… calling to cancel Dr. Darawshe, and referring to him, inter alia, as a “disgrace to the Arab people.”
Think about it. A foreigner comes to a town, advocating for peace and collaboration. Talks forcefully about the difficulties his minority faces in the country of his citizenship. And is slandered, in the most vile, racist way, for the mere fact he is not denouncing his citizenship, his rights, his work.
I am not upset about the SJP folks. They seem to me a mix of enthusiasts overdosed on Fanon, opportunists looking for political prominence on the cheap and card-bearing antisemites: nobody worth talking to.
But I am stunned by the reaction of the moderators of the WUNA-Main list. A guest to the community was smeared. All Israelis who believe in their state were, especially Arab Israelis. And in the wake of this attack the moderators… issued a warning telling the list members to just avoid talking about Middle East3Morally, this is an equivalent of police reacting to a mobbing episode in a park with a statement that good citizens shouldn’t visit the park after the dark. That’s all, – no acknowledgement of the harm, no apologies: back to the busy buzz of the offers of packing boxes and the sightings of spotted owls.
I have no idea why the moderators chose to pointedly ignore the xenophobic slur. One of the moderators seems to be a relative of Addie Gray, and who would want to inconvenience family over some foreigner? But what about another, who describes herself as a “nationally recognized expert, speaker, author and workshop presenter on matters of <…> ethics and professionalism in academia“? Is attacking a visiting researcher OK as long it is not on the official email chain? Or this is a special exception, where you respectfully acknowledge the wrath of the working masses as long as it is directed towards that eternally illegitimate Zionist entity?
Who knows. At any rate, Israelis and their allies: keep your heads down. Don’t irritate the activists.
WUNA is a nice quiet community, and it wants to stay that way.
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